- The Aral Sea cooled the surrounding air by a few degrees
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The Aral Sea provided moisture to form clouds and rain.
- Hot dry air removes any remaining moisture from the sea and the surrounding area
- No cooling effect as water body is now too small.No moisture for rainfall
Climate statistics for Khiva, Uzbekistan
Table 1:Shows Climate Statistics for Khiva
This table here gives us evidence in what the climate is like now as we can see from the table the winters are much colder, and then the climate completely changes when it enters summer as we can see that the summers are really hot. This trend was followed in all the cities that are located close by.
Irrigation scheme in Aral Sea
What is irrigation?
"Irrigation is the artificial application of water to land for the purpose of agricultural production. Effective irrigation will influence the entire growth process from seedbed preparation, germination, root growth, nutrient utilisation, plant growth and regrowth, yield and quality." taken from
When did irrigation start in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan?
According to historic records irrigation has been practiced in the area for almost 6000 years, but it only expanded vastly after the late 1800s.
How was irrigation used in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan?
Irrigation was used from the two rivers that supplied the Aral Sea with water. Irrigation expanded by a massive program of canal building. This program has continued till the present day. This pie chart shows the different techniques in how irrigation was used in Uzbekistan.
Why was irrigation used in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan?
The climate in the area is very dry with hardly any moisture, therefore in these conditions farming would be impossible without the use if irrigation. In this dry climate people started making cotton through irrigation instead of food. As
later it was realized that cotton grew very well in these climatic conditions, and there was a high demand for cotton in the world, and there still is. The people knew that due to irrigation the Aral Sea was shrinking but they couldn't stop this scheme as they were using this to grow cottons. If they did stop they would lose their jobs and money. So this led to an increase in irrigated land in Uzbekistan. As you can see in the table that as year passed area of irrigated land increased, until year 2000 when the government started realizing the consequences!!
All irrigation is full control irrigation, mainly using surface water. Wastewater and drainage water are mixed with surface water before being re-used for irrigation. This pie chart shows the origin of the water used for irrigation in Uzbekistan.
What was produced using the irrigation scheme?
Mainly cotton was produced in large quantities in 1921 Uzbekistan produced 14,000 tonnes of raw cotton. By 1935 it reached one million tones, and it passed two million tonnes in 1950. By 1990 annual production of cotton had reached six million tonnes. This resulted in a lot of water diverted from the Aral Sea and that figure was eight million tonnes. Cotton was not the only crop produced. The area also produced roses for commercial sale locally and for export. Below is a chart that shows the different things produced using the irrigation scheme.
Figure 6: Graph Showing Irrigated Crops
The positive effect…
There was now a much higher yield of cotton, this was good for the economy in the short term. As there was a high amount of cotton it was exported all over the world and in a very short period of time USSR became the larger producer of cotton and is still today. With the money received from the export of cotton the government would then import crops that were not made in the country.
The negative effect…
There is really just one main negative effect that the irrigation scheme had on the surrounding area. And that was the shrinking of the Aral Sea. Since more and more water was needed for growing cotton. Very little amount was finally reaching the Aral Sea. Without human intervention 111 cubic km of water ,mentered the Aral Sea yearly but after the irrigation scheme was introduced this figure was reduced to jus 2 cubic km of water. So we can clearly see that the Sea was not getting enough water for it to refill after the water was being evaporated and therefore it kept shrinking.
Here in this diagram we can see how the sea has been shrinking every few years. And we can see a huge difference between the Aral Sea in 1957 and that in June 2001. In the diagram there are three charts that show us how much more water will disappear depending on the different scenario. In the river there is now more pesticides and fertilizers and industrial pollutants from the factory. These agricultural and industrial pollutants all made their way to the Aral Sea in the end. As time passed the concentration of the pollutants became stronger as the water was being evaporated away. When the water evaporated the salt concentration and the pollutants concentration increased because there is now less water. In the graph below we can see that as the level of water in the Aral Sea decreases the salt concentration increases. It also shows us in which year there was a huge decrease of Aral Sea and we can see that salt concentration has been increasing at a steady rate then after 1975 it increases at a much faster rate, so we can assume that the irrigation scheme must have advanced from this year and onwards. Since the salt concentration has increased animals are unable to cope with the high concentration of salt and they die out. So this in turn affects the fish market. And has led the fish market to an economic disaster (This will be talked about in more detail later on). Now as a result in shrinking on the sea the remains of the pesticides and fertilizers have become exposed on the dry bed. Then the wind is able to pick up the exposed deposits and then it settles on farm land and over normal land. When the salt settles over the farm land this becomes a problem for the farmers as due to this the yield is decreased. This leads to a major decline in the production of cotton in the area. The winds also pick up the agricultural and industrial pollutants and the wind is able to spread the pollutants around the world, this also gives us reason in why pesticides from the Aral region are found out in blood of penguins in the Antarctic Continent. The Aral dust is also falling on glaciers of Greenland, on forests of Norway, and on fields of Belorussia, which are far-off from Central Asia by thousands kilometres.
When the agricultural and industrial pollutants settle on the mountain glaciers of the Himalayas, the Pamirs, the Tien Shan and the Altais, which feed the Syrdarya and the Amudarya Rivers. There is an increase of toxic dust on the surfaces of glaciers and mineralization of precipitation is causing melting of the glaciers. This is a dangerous process for the region as for most of Central Asia this is the only source of fresh water supply left. If this continues there will be a like a cover of the pollutant sediments on top of the glaciers, therefore this does not allow it to melt and there will be a decrease in drainage to the rivers.
The island in the middle if the Aral Sea was used by the Soviet Armed Forces and they conducted germ warfare experiments, when they needed to get rid of their waste they would either dump the chemicals into the sea or leave it on the west coast. Now that the Sea has been shrinking the chemicals and the agricultural and industrial pollutants from before have been exposed to land and have also been blow around by the wind, this has caused several damages to people immune systems and this has resulted in hepatitis, throat cancer and respiratory disease. This resulted in the increase of the death rate. It is said that Uzbekistan death rate will continue rising until at least 2020. And the diseases in the area have also risen. There is also a chance for the bacteria that was left on the island to spread; this will cause huge disaster to the surrounding areas.
As talked about before the climate has also been affected due to the shrinking of Aral Sea. This is another negative effect.
In the Aral region there is now a shortage of water[figure 9]. A person living in the rural area receives only 15 liters instead of the normal 125 liters, and a person living in the urban area receives 40 liters while in the country the average rate is 550 liters. In the crisis zone people fail to receive water sometimes for several days at a time.
Summary:
1. Environmental/Economic
- Degeneration of the delta ecosystems
- Total collapse of the fishing industry
- Decrease of productivity of agricultural fields
2. Health
- Increase of serious diseases( e.g. cholera, typhus, gastritis, blood cancer)
- Increase of respiratory system diseases (asthma, bronchitis)
- Birth defects and high infant mortality
3. Climatic
- Mesoclimatic changes (increase of continentality)
- Increase of salt and dust storms
- Shortening of the vegetation period
Economic crisis:
In the beginning before the shrinking of the Aral Sea, fisheries of Uzbekistan were concentrated mainly in the Aral Sea area. In 1958 fish catches reached a maximum of 50 000 tonnes. As we can see the fish industry was doing great, it was turning into profitable business in surrounding area Aral Sea, but after the shrinking of the Aral Sea there was an increase in salinity to 14 g/litre, and ever since there has been no fishing in the Aral Sea since 1983. As the fishes cannot survive the high salt concentration. It was said that the concentration of the salt in the Aral Sea was ten times more than the concentration oceans. Fisheries have moved to delta lakes and Lake Sarykamysh formed from drainage waters. Below is a graph that shows how much fish was caught in tonnes from 1929 to1983. This is during the time the Aral Sea was shrinking and by looking at the graph we can see how the shrinking of the Aral Sea vastly decreased the number of fishes caught. When the concentration increased it was said that 20 of the Aral Sea 24 species of fish have disappeared. The fishing industry has collapsed and the fishing boats now lie where the edge of the Sea use to be. Now this affected the economy because the fishing industry employed about 60,000 people. This industry was a precious part of the region’s economy until 1983. This was the time when the fishing industry was forced to stop and this caused unemployment of 60,000 people connected with sea jobs. This lead to the multiplier effect. This is when the system that were connected to the fishing industry all have to close down because the one main system has shut down, I.e. the fishing industry, so the other system can no longer run. So this was the one main reason the unemployment level of the fishing industry was so high because it affected everything around it.
Possible solutions
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Improving the quality of canals;
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Installing plants;
- Charging farmers to use the water from the rivers;
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Using alternative species that require less water;
- Using fewer chemicals on the cotton
- Installing Dams to fill the Aral Sea.
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Redirecting water from the , and rivers. This would restore the Aral Sea to its former size in 20-30 years at a cost of US$30-50 billion. (Taken from )
Summary of the Whole Case Study :
Here in this diagram shows us how every system was affected by the irrigation scheme from the economy to the climate. It shows what system increased and which decreased. I believe this is a very accurate model on what is happening in the surrounding area. There is no need to explain the diagram as it is self explanatory
Conclusion
So as we saw in this case study the irrigation scheme had affected the Aral Sea and its surrounding badly. And the negative impacts had overcome the positive impacts. And by looking at this case study you can see the government had made the wrong decision in concentrating mainly on the irrigation scheme and we can see that they were blinded by the short term advantage, but failed to look at what would happen in the long term.
Bibliography
Websites that were used for information for case study:
- Book: Planet Geography by Stephen Codrington
Diagrams, Tables and Graphs taken from:
- Book: Planet Geography by Stephen Codrington